TORONTO – The path to the postseason came into focus for the Red Sox the instant chief baseball officer Craig Breslow traded four prospects to the White Sox for Garrett Crochet at last December’s Winter Meetings in Dallas.
So perhaps it was only fitting that in Crochet’s final start of the regular season on Wednesday night at Rogers Centre, the ace lefty put the Red Sox on the verge of punching their ticket to October for the first time in four years.
Backed by Crochet’s latest sparkling performance, which sparked his team’s 7-1 victory over the Blue Jays, Boston (87-71) could clinch an American League Wild Card spot as early as Thursday.
A Red Sox win or an Astros loss will do the trick for manager Alex Cora’s club.
“Feels good,” said Crochet. “Not at all satisfied though. We’ve still got a lot of games that we intend on playing, and I don't intend on that being my last one.”
It remains to be seen how many more starts Crochet has in 2025, but the next one looks all but sure to be Game 1 of an American League Wild Card series on the road on Tuesday.
In his 32nd start, the man everyone in Boston’s clubhouse calls Beast looked like a man who has plenty left in the tank for the games that will mean the most.
“At this point of the year, it's unbelievable,” said Red Sox catcher Carlos Narváez. “He’s still throwing gas, everything has shape.
“We needed this game big time. And he showed up like a beast, like an ace. And like I said earlier about Beast, I feel proud to be behind the plate for him. He’s making a statement for us. We needed this game. And he showed up like a superstar.”
Hours after Crochet’s 18th win of the season was complete, Houston lost 6-0 to the Athletics in West Sacramento. The Astros and A's finish their series at 3:35 p.m. ET Thursday, so the Sox could clinch before taking the field for the getaway night finale in Toronto.
“It feels great,” said Cora. “But we still have to finish it. We put ourselves in a great position so far. We’ve still got games to play. We’ll enjoy this one.”
Crochet made the enjoyment easy once again for the visitors. You think it was Wednesday for the Red Sox? Think again.
“Every five days, it feels like it’s win day,” said Cora. “That's the reason he's here. We needed an ace. We got an ace. We extended him. And he did an amazing job today. The guys came out swinging, he had a shutdown inning right after that and he set the tempo from the mound.”
Crochet mowed right through the suddenly struggling Blue Jays with a performance that was equal parts efficient (100 pitches, including 69 strikes, through eight innings) and dominant (three hits, no walks, six strikeouts).
His teammates staked him to a 3-0 lead before he even threw a pitch, striking for an early onslaught against Max Scherzer.
Masataka Yoshida and Narváez both homered to lead Boston’s 12-hit attack.
While the offense was nice for a team that was in the throes of a hitting slump before winning four of the first five games on this six-game road trip, Crochet was the headliner.
The 26-year-old got to 205 1/3 innings, easily topping his career high from last year of 146 when he was on a well-chronicled pitch count limit after the All-Star break.
“It was kind of an abstract goal,” Crochet said of reaching 200 innings. “I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to get there, but I just tried to be as consistent as possible and put trust in my teammates.”
For a while, Tigers lefty Tarik Skubal seemed to take a decent lead over Crochet in the race for the American League’s Cy Young Award. However, Crochet has closed the gap. He is first in the league in strikeouts (255), third in ERA (2.59) and second in wins.
“Most importantly, I'm proud of the wins,” Crochet said.
The next one for the Red Sox could be the one that vaults them into the playoffs.
“[Crochet] did his job, and now the rest of us have to finish it,” said Cora. “And hopefully he can pitch Game 1.”
That Game 1 next week is the one the Red Sox got Crochet for all those months ago.